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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27254650">Be Careful What You GISH For</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaossBells/pseuds/KaossBells'>KaossBells</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural, Supernatural RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack, GISH, GISHWHES, Inspired by Episode: s06e15 The French Mistake, M/M, Team Free Will 2.0 (Supernatural), Trigger warning: Bad Humor, but also a little drama, i love my ocs okay, tags may change (constantly), trying to be meta here, universe hopping</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:47:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,272</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27254650</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaossBells/pseuds/KaossBells</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Item 13. VIDEO. (May be up to 45 seconds) Summon an angel to help you with your hunt. Greet them appropriately. Authenticity is key, but open to interpretation.</p><p>or</p><p>“Not this crap again.” – Dean Winchester, hunter</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Welcome to my first ever attempt at writing a Supernatural fic (not a native speaker, bear with me). Originally this was only supposed to be a one shot, but oh well, what can you do?! Takes place season 13ish. Special greetings to all my fellow Gishers!</p><p>Very special thanks to my lovely beta <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffinlover246/pseuds/muffinlover246">Muffinlover246</a>!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“It’s not working, Cas,” Jack said defeatedly, almost bordering on whiney.</p><p>“You can do this, Jack. Focus!”</p><p>The nephilim and the angel stood opposite each other, roughly ten feet apart, in the middle of the bunker’s main hall. They had pushed the large, heavy table to the far wall, so they’d have enough space for Jack’s training. Up until then his powers were hard for him to control, but after his first breakthrough with Sam, he’d asked Cas to help him with some more advanced stuff. This session’s main goal was for Jack to incapacitate Cas without inflicting any injuries. The angel knew he was taking a certain risk, but he trusted Jack not to kill him.</p><p>“What if something goes wrong?” Jack gave him an unsure look. “What if Dean is right and I <em>am</em> a danger to all of you?”</p><p>Cas sighed. It was true, Dean was still very reserved when it came to the boy. But at least he had managed to reign in his open hostility towards him. There was a reason neither Cas nor Sam had told the older Winchester about today’s sparring session, though. He would have just bulldozed them right out of doing it. So, Sam had agreed to get Dean away from the bunker for a few hours under the pretense of taking him to a bar for a well-deserved boys’ night out.</p><p>“Jack, you are very powerful and yes, that power can be dangerous. That is why we want you to learn how to control it, why we are doing <em>this</em>.” He vaguely gestured into the space between them.</p><p>“That… makes sense.” The nephilim nodded slowly. “But Dean–“</p><p>“Dean means well but he is not always right,” Cas said, maybe a little bit more forcefully than intended. He was slowly getting fed up with the self-doubt Dean’s behavior was filling the boy with. “I trust you not to hurt me. So, let us try again.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>With a small smile on his lips Jack closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. Cas trusted him and that felt good. He didn’t want to disappoint him and so he took a deep breath and focused all his energy. Most of the times it had been easy for him to take out the ones who had threatened him or his friends. Just a burst of emotions, predominantly fear and anger, and it was done. But to basically disarm someone he loved without hurting them was different. That required a lot more willpower and control over his thoughts.</p><p>Suddenly he could feel a warm, tingling rush going through his body. It made him feel good, grounded. He felt the solidity of the floor beneath his feet. The cool, slightly dusty air of the bunker flowing through his lungs, providing him with oxygen he didn’t necessarily need but still liked. It carried the smell of old books and Dean’s breakfast bacon and Sam’s shaving cream. The smell of the bunker where he’d started to feel comfortable. He could also feel Cas, or to be more precise, Cas’ grace. It emitted a certain calmness, a warm safety Jack had known even before he had first opened his eyes to this world. Cas was his family and his home, and he somehow knew that he could never willingly hurt the angel.</p><p>“Jack?” Cas asked carefully.</p><p>Jack’s body had begun to glow and as he opened his eyes at the sound of his name, an amber light exuded from them.</p><p>“Jack, it's working. I think you have it under control.” Cas sounded happy which in turn made Jack happy.</p><p>“What do I do now?” Despite everything there was still a slight edge of insecurity to the boy’s voice.</p><p>“Just… Just try to direct some of your energy at me. Think about what you need to happen. Stay focused.”</p><p>Jack felt his grace gently tugging at his insides and tried to coax it into flowing out of his body, aiming at Cas and guiding it in the right direction with his hands. With his eyes closed he could still feel the bristling presence of the angel’s grace. For a split second he wasn’t sure if he was able to subdue something as ancient and magnificent as the concentrated mass of energy before him. If he actually had the grit to attack Cas. He didn’t know the extent of his powers, didn’t know what would happen if he slipped up just like Dean expected him to. Of course, he didn’t want to hurt Cas. But what if he still did?   </p><p>The glow around Jack became brighter as he moved a step closer to Cas, his eyes starting to burn like fire. Completely torn between his fears and the need to prove himself, he started to lose control. The flow of his blood grew hotter and he began to feel uncomfortable as he kept pushing energy towards the other man.</p><p>“Cas, I think something is wrong.”</p><p>“Try slowing down a bit,” the angel tried to calm him and moved a step in Jack’s direction, his hands outstretched as if he was preparing to keep the nephilim from falling over.</p><p>“No, stay back!” The heat was starting to become unbearable and a piercing headache was spreading from Jack’s temples to his forehead and all the way to the back of his head. He closed his eyes and planted his feet firmly on the ground.</p><p>“Jack, what is happening?” Cas tried to stay calm, but Jack’s grace was getting out of control and beginning to take a hold of his.</p><p>“No, no, no … NO! Stop!” Jack cried out in a full-blown panic as he heard a low <em>crack</em> over the rush of blood in his ears. The angel’s grace had given in under the force of his own.</p><p>“Stop! Jack, you can stop this!” A pained growl fell from Cas’ lips as his knees gave out.</p><p>“What <em>the hell</em> is going on here?”</p><p>Jack’s eyes fluttered open and he looked up at the balustrade, instantly locking eyes with Dean. The older Winchester was struck with horror at the sight in front of him. Sam appeared right behind him and froze to the spot as he took in the scene.</p><p>“What do you think you’re doing?” Dean shouted angrily as he moved into action and ran down the short flight of stairs. “You’re killing him!”</p><p>“No!” Jack cried out in desperation, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m not… I- I can’t stop it!”</p><p>“I just knew something like this would happen,” Dean growled and knelt down beside Cas who was on all fours by then, pointedly not looking at Dean. Instead his eyes were fixed on Jack.</p><p>“Get out of the way, Dean,” the angel panted and gave him a forceful shove. “It’s too late.”</p><p>Sam had come down the stairs, too, but was wisely keeping his distance from the nuked up nephilim. He managed to grab his brother by the arm before he could smash into the table behind them.</p><p>“Cas!” Jack and Dean shouted at the same time, equally horrified when Cas seemed to lose consciousness. Jack tried to pull back his out-of-control grace with all his might, but it just didn’t want to let go of Cas.</p><p>“Jack, you can do this! Just stop!” Sam shouted over the thundering sounds the boy’s fight with himself was causing, while trying to keep his brother from throwing himself straight back into the line of fire.</p><p>“I swear to God, if you kill Cas, I am going to send your ass straight to hell, you son of a bitch!” Dean yelled fiercely.</p><p>Jack turned his head to the brothers, his throat constricted, and despair carved into every line of his contorted face. Then he looked back at Cas and suddenly he knew what he had to do. If he couldn’t pull it back… maybe he needed to push. Once more focusing all the energy he had left on controlling himself, Jack let out an agonized scream as he forced his grace forward and wished for Cas to be as far away from the danger he was posing as possible. He felt the heat rush from his body just when the thunderstorm in his head was reaching its peak and a new force entered the room, pulling reality away from him. Then, the lights went out.</p><p> </p><p>* * *</p><p> </p><p>“This is going to be awesome!” the young woman exclaimed in excitement as she bustled around the backyard. “I mean, if we don’t get extra points for the effort we’ve put into this… I am going to write Misha a very indignant tweet.”</p><p>“I bet he’d take that very seriously,” the man sitting cross-legged in the grass sniggered while unfolding a big, square piece of soft fabric in front of him.</p><p>She dismissed his comment with a light-hearted shrug and kept on grinning. Gingerly she aligned the final light with the scenery they were setting up. When she was satisfied with the lighting, she took a step back to take in their progress. The man had just finished up his part of the set-up, put the empty prop box aside and got up to stand beside her.</p><p>“What do you think, Mel?” he asked, grinning broadly.</p><p>“I think this might be our best item yet,” she replied confidently. Without looking, she put a hand on the man’s – Theo’s – shoulder. “The others are going to lose their shit when they get to see this.”</p><p>“So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!”</p><p>“Yes, sir!” She laughed and ran over to the camera to make sure it was running properly. Meanwhile, Theo sat down in the middle of the frame, their props in front of him, and started to light the candles. Mel hurried over to sit opposite her friend. She quickly placed a silver bowl between them, right in the center of the white sigil she had meticulously drawn onto the dark fabric.</p><p>“Ready?” Theo asked and took a swift look at their electronics. “Lights?”</p><p>“Check.”</p><p>“Speakers?”</p><p>“Check.”</p><p>“Confetti cannon?”</p><p>“Double check.”</p><p>“Camera?”</p><p>“Rolling!”</p><p>“Okay, we have 45 seconds. You want to do the honors?”</p><p>She nodded. “3… 2… 1… and action!”</p><p>He pressed one of the buttons that were discreetly hidden next to his leg, just out of frame, and some very esoteric and <em>very</em> royalty free music started to play around them. They’d both put on their most serious faces when Mel started their choreography and entwined her fingers with Theo’s, letting their hands hang in the air next to the bowl. Then they began to take turns throwing herbs and other ingredients into the bowl while steadily looking at each other. A slight grin was tugging at the corner of Theo’s mouth, but Mel chastised him with a sternly raised eyebrow. They only had one chance to get the perfect shot. Cleaning up the confetti would take them hours, probably until after midnight and Mel had gotten it into her head that this <em>needed</em> to be done on a Thursday night. Theo called it her “fangirl perfectionism”, though she still wasn’t sure if she liked that term. But she <em>was </em>sure she would kill him if he messed this up. As if he knew exactly what was going through her head, he subtly squeezed her fingers and managed to get his face back under control. And just in time, because she was now reaching for the final ingredient, some herbs with a sickeningly sweet scent to them, and sprinkled them over the bowl’s contents in a circular movement. Theo then lit a match and threw it in, too. Unfortunately, the resulting flame wasn’t as big as Mel had hoped, but the effect was still satisfying enough. In the end the only thing that mattered was how it looked on screen, anyway.</p><p>From the corner of her eyes she saw Theo reaching for the button of the confetti cannon, but in the split second before he could push it, a lot of things happened at once. A flash of blindingly bright light illuminated the whole garden, forcing them to clamp their hands over their eyes. A high-pitched sound, almost like a screech, piercing their unprotected ears, made them consider if going blind really trumped going deaf. The ground was shaking beneath them, light bulbs exploded, and fuses blew. Theo was suddenly beside her, trying to wrap an arm around her shoulder while still shielding his eyes <em>and </em>ears. An impossible feat, really.</p><p>Just as quickly as it had started it was over again, though. An almost deafening silence enveloped them. That was until Theo’s tensed body slackened next to her and his hand accidentally landed on the confetti button. A loud <em>bang</em> echoed through the garden and they were showered with a gazillion tiny pieces of colorful paper.</p><p>“Happy hunting…” she weakly said in the general direction of the tipped-over camera while Theo was coughing up some confetti.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“What. The Hell. Was that? I mean, seriously! What the hell?” Theo was staring at Mel, asking the same question for the umpteenth time.</p><p>“I don’t know, man,” she replied. <em>Again</em>. With an exhausted sigh she flopped down on the sofa. “If I didn’t know any better… but that’s just stupid.”</p><p>“I know what you’re thinking. Stupid is the right word. Maybe some weird weather phenomenon?” He walked over to the fridge and fetched two bottles of beer, then sat down next to her and handed one over.</p><p>They had spent the better part of the last hour cleaning up the backyard where they'd tried to shoot their video and carrying their equipment up to their shared apartment. Jean, their other roommate, was fortunately not home yet. She wasn’t usually as forgiving with their shenanigans as most of their other friends were, and she probably would have thought that the power outage and the racket outside had been their fault. How they would have been supposed to cause an earthquake, though… Jean would’ve found a way to hold them accountable for that, anyway.</p><p>“I think we need to review the video material. Maybe we can figure out what happened that way. If the camera’s still working, that is.”</p><p>Mel leaned forward to start up the laptop on the coffee table and Theo reached for the camera bag next to the sofa. His hands were still shaking a bit when he extracted the SD card from the slot, but Mel kindly didn’t say anything. Her calmness was all pretense and wouldn’t have borne closer examination, either.</p><p>A few minutes later they had copied the video into the designated folder and started it up on the media player. They saw themselves running around and then sitting down in the middle of the frame. Their set-up looked prefect. It could have come out so great… The first 30 seconds went off just as planned, their summoning spell unfolding beautifully. Then, without warning, the blinding flash of light temporarily took over the whole screen and made it impossible to see what else might have been going on in that moment. The audio had been completely corrupted, all they could hear was a constant hissing from the speakers. Suddenly the light was gone and the frame tilted to the side, indicating the exact moment the camera had tipped over. Then everything went back to normal, showing the two cowering on the ground. Screen-Mel looked up and her “Happy hunting” was barely audible over the receding noise.</p><p>“Well, that wasn’t very illuminating.” Theo sighed and chugged the rest of his beer in one go, nervously chuckling at the irony.</p><p>“Seems like we’ve just got to file it away under ‘mystery weather’… or something like that,” Mel concluded, shrugging, but not really satisfied.</p><p>“Mel? Theo! What’s with the mess in the hall?” Oh. They totally hadn’t heard Jean coming home.</p><p>“Sorry, Jean! We’re going to take care of that in a minute!” Mel called out, slumping forward and bracing her elbows on her knees. “Let’s not tell her about this,” she whispered to Theo.</p><p>“Definitely not,” he agreed under his breath just as Jean walked in.</p><p>“You guy’s are still doing that whole GISH thing, aren’t you? I thought it was over by now,” she said conversationally and made her way over to the kitchen to grab herself a beer, too.</p><p>“No, we still have three more days to go,” Mel replied quietly.</p><p>“I see. And what did you need all that confetti for?” She didn’t seem as reserved about their shenanigans as she usually was. Her date must’ve gone well, then.</p><p>“We… tried to summon an angel,” Theo explained. “Didn’t go too well, though.”</p><p>“The usual, then,” Jean grinned and put her beer down on the counter.</p><p>“You could say that,” he answered with an uneasy smile. “How’d your date go?”</p><p>“Very well, thanks for asking,” she giggled as she slipped out of her boots and went over to her room. “He was… amazing.”</p><p>Mel and Theo shared a secret grin at that. Jean was very picky when it came to men, so “amazing” could basically be equated with “marriage material”. The space behind the sofa was suddenly bathed in a warm light when Jean flicked on the light switch in her room. This was quickly followed by a high-pitched scream.</p><p>“What the fuck, guys!?” Jean yelled as she came running back. “Why is there a man sleeping in my bed?”</p><p>“Huh?” Mel offered in surprise. “What man… HUH?”</p><p>“Don’t play dumb with me! There is a man lying on my bed!” She was completely distraught as Mel and Theo exchanged an incredulous look.</p><p>They both jumped into action at the same time, squeezed past Jean and ran over to her open bedroom door.</p><p>“I’m going to call the police if you don’t tell me what’s going on <em>right now</em>!” She was close to hysterics and already had her phone ready to act out the threat.</p><p>“What the hell…” Mel froze in the door frame and Theo almost knocked her over when he came to a sudden halt behind her.</p><p>There was indeed a man lying on Jean’s bed. On his stomach, his head tilted away from them in an uncomfortable angle and his feet hanging off the side of the bed. Dressed in a cheap suit and a tan trench coat. The dark hair at the back of his head completely disheveled.</p><p>The two friends looked at each other in utter disbelief. <em>What the hell</em>, indeed.</p><p>“Did you do this?” Theo asked shakily.</p><p>“What? No! I was just about to ask you the same.” Mel looked back over to the unmoving body.</p><p>“Then… what kind of prank is this? Do you think… one of our team members maybe?” There was a slight spark of hope in his voice.</p><p>“I don’t think so. I mean… how should they have done <em>this</em>?” she replied and gestured towards the man.</p><p>“So, you don’t know what’s going on, either? Then I’m definitely calling the cops.” Jean had walked up behind them and was peaking over their shoulders.</p><p>“No!” Mel suddenly decided.</p><p>“No? What do you mean, no? This guy has obviously broken into our apartment while you guys were outside,” their roommate stated indignantly.</p><p>“I <em>mean</em>, maybe we should try talking to him before we call the authorities,” Mel explained. “There’s probably a simple explanation for this.”</p><p>“I don’t know, Mel,” Theo jumped in. “I think Jean’s right.”</p><p>“Thank you!” Jean sighed in relief.</p><p>“Theo, think for a second. Maybe this has something to do with the ‘incident’.” She hissed the last word with a profound nod in the direction of Jean’s bed.</p><p>“You can’t be serious.” He almost laughed at her, but quickly quieted down when he saw the expression on her face, instead opting for a more concerned approach. “You’re crazy.”</p><p>Just when Mel was about to defend herself, the man on the bed started to stir into consciousness and all three of them instantly fell into a tensed silence. The man let out a soft groan and shifted a little. One hand went to his face as he propped himself up with the other. Then he slowly turned to the three terrified twenty-somethings, brows knitted in obvious confusion.</p><p>“Where am I?” he finally asked in a gravelly voice and managed to sit up straight.</p><p>“Uhm… Portland, Oregon?” Mel replied, trying hard for confident, but it came out rather thinly.</p><p>“Portland. How did I get to Portland?” The man appeared to be talking more to himself than to the three roommates.</p><p>“How would we know?” Jean cried out in a panic. “Why are you even in my room? Get out!”</p><p>“Jean, keep it down,” Theo hissed at her.</p><p>“Okay, I’ve had enough. You’re both obviously crazy.” She stepped away from the door and hurried back into the living room. “I’m going to call the police <em>now</em>.”</p><p>“Jean, <em>please</em>! I know what this looks like, but let’s maybe try to figure out what’s going on ourselves first?” Mel pleaded while not really knowing why. Jean was definitely right, but somehow her curiosity was stronger than her fear of the intruder.</p><p>“Mel,” Jean tried to reason, “there’s a man in my room who looks like one of the dudes from your stupid show. Neither one of us knows how he got in or what he’s doing here. Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to rob us yet. Probably just a matter of time, though. He’s clearly a psychopath.”</p><p>“Jean, please do us all a favor and shut up for a minute,” Theo finally butted in again. He’d been in a staring contest with the man for the greater part of Mel and Jean’s exchange. “Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.”</p><p>Jean stared at him in consternation. He’d never raised his voice to her like this. It had effectively stunned her into speechlessness, but inwardly she still wanted to explode. How could they be so stupid?</p><p>“Thank you,” the man said quietly, but his voice was clear and steady.</p><p>“Are you… Misha?” Mel had turned her attention back to him in something akin to reverence.</p><p>“Misha?” The name rolled off his tongue as if it were something especially peculiar. “No. I have heard that name before, though.”</p><p>“Wow, this is so French Mistake,” Theo breathed out, almost laughing. “Seriously, how much did you drink? Are you some kind of impersonator?”</p><p>“Impersonator?” Mel looked at Theo. “Look at him, he’s the spitting image of Misha! We’ve been to a quite a few conventions and no cosplayer has ever been <em>this</em> good. He looks even more like Cas than Misha does, if that’s even possible.”</p><p>“Let me get this straight,” her friend gave her an exhausted look and rubbed at his forehead. “You’d rather believe there’s an actual tv angel in Jean’s room than to consider that he’s some drugged up Supernatural superfan?”</p><p>“Well, if you put it like that…“ Mel screwed up her face in frustration. This was just the epitome of clusterfuckery.</p><p>Meanwhile, the man had followed their exchange in grave silence, the frown on his face having grown to epic proportions.</p><p>“My name is Castiel and I <em>am </em>an angel of the Lord,” he interjected, and all eyes were on him immediately. His presence was somewhat commanding. “You somehow seem to know me, and I have an idea about what happened. In this universe there is a television show called Supernatural?”</p><p>No one dared to speak for a long moment before Mel slowly nodded. “Yes?”</p><p>“This must be the universe Balthazar sent Sam and Dean to, then. I remember they told me about a man called Misha who was this universe’s equivalent to me,” the man mused.</p><p>“Wait a second. Can we just rewind to the part where you actually think you’re an angel?” Jean had come back to stand behind her friends, reassured by the fact that the intruder had not yet attacked them.</p><p>“But in that episode Misha was murdered and Sam and Dean <em>replaced </em>the actual Jared and Jensen. Our Misha is still very much alive and kicking. If your arrival hasn’t somehow erased him from existence, that is.” Mel said, excitement and worry fighting for the upper hand, completely ignoring Jean’s objection. “Maybe we should check, just in case.”</p><p>“Then this has to be a similar universe to the one Sam and Dean visited, differing only in minor aspects. I am not familiar with this particular universe’s intricacies,” the man deadpanned.</p><p>“Okay, let’s say we believe you,” Theo backtracked. Mel looked at him from the corner of her eyes and could see how his resolve to <em>not</em> believe the guy seemed to crumble a bit. “How did you even get here?”</p><p>“I am not sure,” the alleged angel admitted. “I think Jack may have accidentally opened a rift between this universe and the one I came from.”</p><p>“But in that case shouldn’t there be a rift here, too? I mean, as far as I understand these rifts work just like doors, don’t they?” Mel was so much in her element now; she didn’t even care about the incredulous look Jean was giving her.</p><p>“Yes. That part is still unclear to me.” The man nodded at her.</p><p>“Oh shit…“ Theo groaned, a sudden realization dawning on him. “Say, in theory, if an angel were to enter such a rift while someone on the other side was performing a summoning spell… Would that change anything?” His voice grew ever higher towards the end of his question.</p><p>“What?” The angel’s eyes widened in horror. And, <em>yes</em>, at least Mel and Theo had now accepted the fact that the man was telling the truth. “You <em>summoned</em> me here?”</p><p>“We may have done that, yes,” Mel admitted reluctantly, shame written all over her face. “But in our defense, we didn’t think it would actually work.”</p><p>“And it shouldn’t have! I mean, come on, the sheer amount of coincidences that had to come together for <em>this</em> to happen? That’s a chance of one in a billion,” Theo tried to argue, and he was right.</p><p>“That may be true, but I have still ended up here and it seems the rift could be anywhere on this planet,” Castiel sighed almost defeatedly. “Why were you even performing a summoning spell in the first place? There is no supernatural activity in this universe whatsoever.”</p><p>“Hah, he said supernatural,” Theo sniggered under his breath, not able to help himself. It earned him an elbow to the ribs from Mel as she looked at him with raised eyebrows. But there was a grin tugging at her lips, too.</p><p>“We were… ergh…“ Was she really about to explain GISH to the actual angel, Castiel? The delightful absurdity of the situation didn’t pass her by. “Well, Misha organizes this annual hunt, you see.” The angel gave her a puzzled look and was about to raise the obvious question, so she quickly clarified. “A scavenger hunt. It’s actually a global thing, pretty amazing. Everyone has a team and together you have to do pretty weird tasks. Like, say, perform an angel summoning spell and capture it on video.”</p><p>“According to this specific task you have to help us with the rest of the hunt, just saying,” Theo added with a crooked grin.</p><p>Castiel furrowed his brows and tilted his head a little in a complete lack of understanding. Mel had to bite her lip in order not to giggle at the angel’s trademark expression. She didn’t want to weird him out and consequently be branded as the crazy fangirl. Theo wouldn’t let her live it down. Ever.</p><p>Jean shook her head in disbelief, still unable to completely wrap her head around the fact that her friends’ absurd favorite show was apparently becoming reality. “I have never really watched that show. What does <em>being</em> <em>an angel</em> mean, then? Shouldn’t you guys come with special features? Like, you know, a location service for lost universe doors?”</p><p>Mel had to laugh at that and gave Jean an approving look. Then she sobered up a bit and beat Castiel to the explanation. “In theory you’re probably right. But, you see, there is no supernatural activity here, just like Cas said. Which means our universe renders him powerless. Here he’s just… a regular guy, I guess.” Her eyes went back to the angel, who nodded his confirmation. He looked more than a little unhappy at the bleak prospect.</p><p>“Does that mean he’s stuck here?” Jean asked, her voice sounding almost concerned.</p><p>“I’m afraid so,” Theo said and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.</p><p>The three friends exchanged helpless glances before looking back at the newly human angel.</p><p>“I have come back from worse,” Castiel sighed deeply. “Dean and Sam are presumably already planning a very reckless rescue operation.”</p><p>It wasn’t exactly clear to them if he thought that a good or a bad thing.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Meanwhile, one universe over…</p><p> </p><p>Dean walked back and forth restlessly, alternating between rubbing angrily at his face and cursing under his breath, while Sam was mumbling into his phone. They had carried Jack into one of the more comfortable chairs in the adjacent library about half an hour earlier. He was still out cold.</p><p>The younger Winchester was holding an ice pack to his bruised jaw, the immediate result of successfully having stopped his brother from jumping into the rift right after Cas.</p><p>The rift. Yes. There it was, in the middle of the room, and seemingly still a big temptation to Dean. Every time he was close to it and thought Sam wasn’t looking, he stole torn glances at it. Although he had eventually agreed that crossing over without knowing what was on the other side was a colossally stupid idea, it didn’t mean that his pigheadedness wasn’t still fighting for the upper hand. He felt himself being pulled towards the tear in their reality, but he had promised. He didn’t have to like it, though.</p><p>“Well, that’s it. I’ve tried every way I know to reach Rowena. Nothing,” Sam announced in defeat and put his phone down on the table. “We can only hope that she calls back.”</p><p>Dean stopped in his tracks and looked at his brother with narrowed eyes and his lips pressed together in a thin line. His hand went up to his face again and he tried to smooth out some of the tension. Then he took a deep breath and glanced over at the unconscious nephilim.</p><p>“We have to get him to wake up. He sent Cas over there,” he gestured towards the rift without looking, “he can get him back.”</p><p>“We don’t know that, Dean,” Sam sighed. “And there’s no way of knowing what kind of universe is on the other side of that rift.”</p><p>“Well, there is <em>one</em> way,” Dean replied stubbornly.</p><p>Sam had to suppress an eye roll at that. He knew Dean would do anything to get their friend back. Hell, Sam was willing to do anything, too. But running headfirst into the unknown wouldn’t accomplish anything.</p><p>“Sammy, we don’t even know how long this thing will stay open. Could shut down any second. And then what?” Dean had walked over to the table, leaning on it with both hands.</p><p>“Exactly. What if we cross over and the rift closes before we can go back?” One glance at his brother’s face told him everything he needed to know, though, maybe more. Failure wasn’t an option. They’d lost the angel too many times already, and each time it had been harder to come back from it. Especially for his brother. The next time might very well be the last. He exhaled heavily before slowly nodding. “You’re right, we need Jack.”</p><p>They both looked over at the boy, Sam more worried than anything, Dean with grim determination. There was little they could do, though. The effort it had taken to open the rift had to have been enormous, even if it had just been an accident. Jack’s batteries were probably drained and he had to wake up by himself. Sam’s first instinct would usually have been to fall back on research. Their situation was so unique, though, that he didn’t really expect to find anything on the internet. So, with no way of getting to Rowena who might have been able to help with examining the rift closer, there was nothing left to do but wait. And keep an eye on Dean.</p><p>From Dean’s extended silence Sam gathered that he’d come to the same conclusion. He didn’t need to look at his brother to know he was still fuming. Poor Jack would likely get an ear full when he came to. If Dean could restrain himself, that was.</p><p>“You want a beer?” Sam finally asked as he got up and stretched his back, already starting towards the kitchen.</p><p>“I’m good,” Dean replied.</p><p>The younger man gave a little frown at that, but then saw his brother pulling the bottle of whiskey towards him that was already sitting on the table. With a silent sigh, he turned and made his way to fetch himself a beer. This was going to be a long night.</p><p> </p><p>Another hour had gone by without anything happening. Dean had packed his duffel for any possible universe hopping activities and it was now prominently sitting on the chair beside him. They had fallen into a tensed silence that was occasionally broken by Dean impatiently tapping on the table. Sam had stopped after his third beer, but his brother had managed to get halfway through the bottle of whiskey. </p><p>“I hate this,” Dean finally announced with a frustrated edge to his voice and slammed his glass down on the table, “sitting on our asses while Cas is fuck knows where and that rift could shut down any minute.”</p><p>“Dean, I know,” Sam started, wanting to say something encouraging and hopeful, but coming up short. The truth was that he had no idea what they were supposed to do, either.</p><p>It was at that exact moment that the front door opened with an ominous creak. Both Winchesters looked up at the gallery immediately when the slight woman entered, her cloak flowing as she looked down at them. She threw a thick, red lock over her shoulder and her lips curled into a superior smile.</p><p>“Rowena,” Sam said, only slightly surprised.</p><p>“Boys,” she nodded in greeting. “You called?”</p><p>“What took you so long?” Dean spat and jumped up, knocking his chair to the ground while giving her an accusing look.</p><p>“Now, now, that’s no way of greeting your favorite witch,” Rowena scolded him with a crooked grin, gracefully descendeding the stairs.</p><p>“Yeah, well, <em>excuse me</em>,” he snapped back as Sam covertly rolled his eyes at him.</p><p>Rowena graciously ignored Dean and instead raised her eyebrows at the rift as she walked by it. Then she looked over at Sam and pursed her lips in suspicion.</p><p>“What did you do?”</p><p>“Nothing,” Dean immediately shot back, but got interrupted by Sam.</p><p>“What Dean <em>wanted</em> to say is that this wasn’t us.” He nodded over at the still unconscious form of Jack. “It was an accident.” Dean huffed at that and earned himself another exasperated look from his brother. “It was. Jack was training with Cas. Somehow things got out of control, the rift opened, and Cas was pushed through.”</p><p>“Ah,” the witch exhaled. “I see. Now things are starting to make sense.”</p><p>“What about any of this makes sense to you, exactly?” Dean asked irritably and fully aware of the fact that he was probably pissing off the one person who could help them. It wasn’t his fault, though. Their best friend had been pushed into another dimension, for fuck’s sake! How did they <em>think</em> he was going to react?</p><p>“Well, there was a reason I did not immediately answer my phone when you called, you know? I was <em>busy</em>,” she replied, getting a little testy herself. “I was in the middle of an extremely intricate spell when a power surge interrupted me. So, you see, I had to start over. Very inconvenient.”</p><p>“And?” Sam prompted.</p><p>“And then my curiosity got the better of me and I tracked the source of said power surge. Imagine how unsurprised I was when it led me here.” She languidly waved her hand, giving her surroundings a slightly unapproving look. “You should clean up sometimes.”</p><p>“Can you help?” Sam asked, passing over her comment. “We need to know what’s on the other side before we can cross over.”</p><p>“Well, I can tell you, just from being close to the rift that it’s not like the one we dealt with before. This is…” She walked closer and moved her hands as if feeling it out, even going so far as to sniff at it. “Oh my, this is extraordinary.”</p><p>“Care to elaborate?” Dean was fighting very hard to keep his impatience in check.</p><p>“This rift is more or less powering itself. I feel your angel,” she continued, looking at the glowing tear in awe, “almost like he’s still here. I think it’s his grace. It has taken a new form. But there’s some other energy intermingled with it.” She looked over at Jack. “A piece of <em>him</em>.”</p><p>“What, you mean that thing,” Dean waved at the rift, “is Cas’ grace?”</p><p>“If you want to put it in layman’s terms, yes.” Rowena sighed softly and slowly walked over to where Jack was still hunched over in a chair, motionless.</p><p>“But what does that mean?” Sam asked, now getting up and following the witch.</p><p>“I cannot be sure,” she offered and gently laid a hand on the nephilim’s head. “But it seems like your wee boy here cracked open that rift and your angel’s grace is keeping it open. Imagine being shoved through a hole that is too small for you to fit through. Something will be scraped off you and stay behind.”</p><p>“So…” Dean was trying to wrap his head around those new revelations. “So, wherever Cas is, he’s basically graceless?”</p><p>“It appears so,” Rowena nodded. “But before you get your knickers in a twist, this is good news.”</p><p>“How so?” Sam inquired. He seemed to get excited over all this information, his nerd gene kicking in. But one look at Dean damped him down a bit.</p><p>“It means we have time,” the witch expounded. “The rift cannot close unless the main power source returns to its rightful owner.”</p><p>“Meaning Cas,” Sam deduced, slowly nodding in understanding.</p><p>“I still don’t get how this is good news. Okay, so maybe it’s not a bad thing we have more time than expected. But Cas is still somewhere without his grace and hasn’t returned on his own. If he was alright, he could’ve just walked right back through that rift. He didn’t. Which means something’s wrong.” Dean ruffled his hair, clearly more worried than angry now.</p><p>“Look, now that we know the rift won’t just shut down on us, we can go over there and find him,” Sam tried to reassure his brother. “Dean, we’re gonna bring him back.”</p><p>The older Winchester just nodded and looked over at Jack. “What about him?”</p><p>“Oh, he’s very close to waking up,” Rowena responded. “He’ll be fine.”</p><p>“Good,” Dean said, and Sam was a little surprised, but only until-, “he’s gonna come with me.”</p><p>“<em>Dean</em>,” he started warningly, ready to put on his signature bitch face. It was blaringly obvious where this was going. Typical.</p><p>“Sammy, someone needs to stay here to make sure nothing’s gonna cross over from that other place,” Dean argued with a certain finality to his voice. “And you know as well as I do it’s not gonna be me.”</p><p>“No, I’m not staying behind. Cas is my friend, too,” Sam tried to reason because he really didn’t want his brother to go without him. “Jack and Rowena can stay here and guard the place.”</p><p>“We can?” Rowena butted in and crossed her arms over her chest, furrowing her brows at him.</p><p>“Obviously Dean is right. <em>Someone</em> needs to stay here and keep an eye on things,” Sam turned to face the witch.</p><p>“And you want to leave the Evil Witch and Nuclear Boy to take care of that?” Dean interjected. “I don’t think so.”</p><p>Rowena raised her eyebrows at that, but conceded, “He’s not wrong. It would be best not to pair up the two more capable ones while the other two are left weak and vulnerable.”</p><p>“Aww, Rowena, don’t sell yourself short,” Dean smirked.</p><p>“I mean you. You are the weak links here,” she snapped back. “You might be at an advantage when it comes to brute force but considering we don’t yet know what kind of universe we’re dealing with, it might be wise for you two to each stick with someone more powerful.”</p><p>Just when Sam wanted to challenge her on that, a soft groan came from the library and they collectively turned their heads to see Jack finally waking up. He slowly raised his head from the back of the chair where it had been resting for close to three hours, and blinked, clearly confused when he found the two hunters and the witch staring at him.</p><p>“What…” he croaked. “What happened?”</p><p>Dean was about to take a step towards him, anger already his prime modus operandi again. But Sam beat him to the punch as he rushed to Jack’s side.</p><p>“How’re you feeling?” he asked quickly.</p><p>“I… don’t know. I’m… tired. My head hurts.” The boy’s eyes swept the room and when they found Dean’s angry gaze, he furrowed his brows and asked, “Where is Cas?”</p><p>“Cutting right to the chase, huh?” Dean replied gruffly. “You sent him to another dimension, so you tell us.”</p><p>“Oh.” Jack’s lips formed around the sound in dawning understanding. He had finally spotted the rift by the stairs and his brows knitted together in careful thought. “But how did I do that?”</p><p>Dean huffed sarcastically. “No idea, kid. Doesn’t matter as long as we get him back, does it?”</p><p>“I remember losing control. I was afraid to hurt Cas, so I tried to push him away. But…” The corners of his mouth went down and he frowned. “There was something else pulling at him.”</p><p>“What?” Sam gasped in surprise. “Jack, what was it?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>Rowena took a step closer to the rift, her face set in a calculating glare as she extended her hand to feel out the power emanating from it. “It’s weak, but I can feel the residues of a spell. Unfortunately, I cannot make out its nature. It feels… obscure and kind of amateurish.”</p><p>“Great,” Dean grumbled. “So, Jack pushed and we have no idea who or what did the pulling.”</p><p>“Basically, yes,” the witch replied as she turned back to the three pairs of eyes currently resting on her. “There is no way to be certain about what is on the other side, I’m afraid. Your angel’s grace and the remaining echo of that spell make it impossible for me to look beyond the rift. But – and this is just guesswork, though I do know quite a bit about these kinds of things – I think it might have been a summoning spell.”</p><p>“What makes you think that?” Sam asked imploringly. He had gotten up again, but remained by Jack’s side, one hand resting on the back of the chair.</p><p>“Well, an angel doesn’t necessarily have to answer such a spell, as you well know, but considering the weak condition he must have been in, possibilities are high that he could not refuse the request.” She simply shrugged. “But, as I said, it’s just a guess, if a highly educated one.”</p><p>Now it was Dean’s turn for understanding to dawn on him. “He didn’t just drop on the other side then?” He looked at Rowena, dreading the confirmation he knew was coming. She nodded. “So, he might be fuck knows where over there? Without his powers? This is just awesome.”</p><p>“Shit, you’re right,” Sam replied in horror. “How do we find him?”</p><p>“Well, assuming that he is currently more human than angel, I might be able to equip you with a tracking spell,” Rowena replied, her face worried and deep in thought.</p><p>“How does that work?” Dean asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. It almost seemed too easy a solution and <em>easy </em>had never been part of their job description. Like, ever.</p><p>The witch looked over at Jack and then back to Dean. “In theory we’d need a tracker and a power source that is connected to your angel.”</p><p>“Rowena, what does that mean?” Sam was growing rather impatient, but the witch wasn’t having any of that.</p><p>“Samuel, this is uncharted territory for all of us. It is a spell of my own devising and I have never used it before. So please, let me explain it in my own time.” Again, she raised her eyebrows at him and successfully shut him up. “As I was saying, a tracker and a power source. Accidentally, both of those things happen to be at our disposal.”</p><p>Dean, eager not to be reprimanded like his little brother, opted for confused silence.</p><p>“Jack, you will be acting as the tracker,” she announced with a curiously soft, regretful look at the boy. “I will plant the spell in you, so you will be able to…” she carefully considered her next words, “feel your way to Castiel.”</p><p>“What kind of power source are we talking about?” Dean then asked, not questioning the risk Jack would be taking on by being the guinea pig for an untested spell.</p><p>Rowena turned back to him and gave him an ominously smug smile. “You know, for someone who has survived more than one apocalypse, you can be awfully dense. It’s you. <em>You</em> are the power source, obviously.”</p><p>“How so?” The older Winchester demanded confidently, but his mouth had instantly gone dry at the implications.</p><p>She rolled her eyes in faux desperation but continued. “Well, he did pull you out of hell, if I remember correctly?”</p><p>“Yeah, so?”</p><p>“He had to put you back together on a molecular level. In doing so he weaved his very essence into your soul and forged a bond between you two. In a way, you’re carrying a piece of your angel in you.” She gave Dean a minute wink, not missing how he’d instantly and profusely started to blush.</p><p>“How very profound,” Sam deadpanned, not paying any attention to his brother’s growing discomfort. He was used to it. “We know they have a weird relationship. How’s it going to help find Cas?”</p><p>“If Dean and Jack stay together, the spell uses that bond and basically acts like a bloodhound. It won’t give up until it has found the object it’s set on. So, it will inevitably lead them to him.” She shrugged at Sam like nothing she had said was a big deal to her.</p><p>“When do we leave?” Jack butted in, finally getting out of the chair.</p><p>Sam had to grab a hold of his arm because his legs were still a little unsteady, but otherwise the nephilim appeared to be fine. Fine and obviously dead set on proving his usefulness to the group. <em>Especially to Dean, though</em>, the younger hunter thought with a pained sigh. He really didn’t want to leave him alone with his brother. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t trust Dean with this. But the thought of Jack being the sole focus of his brother’s unfiltered bluntness and anger was a cause for concern. When his eyes met Dean’s, though, it became abundantly clear that there was no way around it.</p><p>“I’m already packed,” Dean stated with a nod to his duffel bag. “What’re we waiting for?”</p><p>“Let’s get to it, then,” the witch agreed, rubbing her hands in shameless excitement.</p><p>No one seemed to have any reservations about this plan whatsoever. Sam wasn’t exactly sure why, but even when a heavy, dead weight had settled in his stomach, he kept quiet. Maybe it was the fact that Dean’s patented look of unwavering, angry determination was riddled with an unknown fear this time. He <em>needed</em> to bring Cas back. At any cost.</p><p> </p><p>Travelling through rifts wasn’t exactly a pleasant mode of transportation and Dean hoped he wouldn’t have to do it on a regular basis. He blinked a few times and brushed some imaginary dirt off the sleeves of his jacket just as Jack appeared beside him. They both immediately started to look around, trying to figure out where they’d landed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to go on. They were surrounded by trees. Just a lot of trees. There was an unnatural bright light shining through the thick underbrush just to their left, in the otherwise dark and cloudy night, though.</p><p>“Dean-“ Jack started after a few seconds of confused disorientation, but Dean turned around to him and quickly put a finger to his lips in an obvious shushing motion. He proceeded to point at his ear and then in the direction the light was coming from. It was then that Jack heard muffled voices from the other side of the tree line.</p><p>Dean put a hand on Jack’s shoulder and wordlessly dragged him down with him into a crouching position. In the same move the older hunter also pushed the nephilim slightly behind himself without giving him so much as a second look. Instead he pulled out his gun and started to slowly crawl towards the voices.</p><p>He saw shadows of people moving about but it was hard to get a clear line of sight through the undergrowth. He was also looking almost directly into the blinding white light, causing him to shield his eyes. Quickly he went through a mental list of possible scenarios they might’ve landed themselves in. Given the circumstances an excavation, a building site or a crime scene seemed to be the most plausible to him. Considering their luck, they’d probably ended up in the middle of a murder investigation. Awesome.</p><p>Jack had crept up beside him and with an annoyed side glance Dean saw that the boy was mimicking his stance perfectly, though without a gun. There’d never even been a discussion about Jack undergoing gun training seeing as he was already a weapon himself. Still, Sam had wanted him to carry a gun on this trip, just in case, but Dean had been very vocal about absolutely not risking getting accidentally shot by Wonder Kid.</p><p>“You picking up on any sign of Cas?” Dean whispered and suddenly felt Jack’s hand on his left shoulder. He was about to shrug it off with a huff, but then realized that Jack had closed his eyes in concentration. It was probably how the tracking spell worked and although Dean didn’t like it, he also didn’t care if it meant finding Cas.</p><p>“There’s a weird energy in this place,” Jack eventually replied and took his hand away. “It feels like Cas. But it also doesn’t.”</p><p>The older Winchester rolled his eyes in frustration. “Not helpful.”</p><p>“It’s close,” the boy went on. “It seems to be coming from over there.” He pointed at a bunch of shadows bustling about on the other side of the tree line.</p><p>“Okay, listen. I’ll try to figure out what’s going on over there. You stay here and wait for me to come get you,” Dean decided and cocked his gun.</p><p>“But Rowena said the spell only works if we stay together,” Jack said and if Dean didn’t know any better, he’d say the kid was scared.</p><p>“Yeah well, I’ll only be a few minutes. You have to keep an eye on the rift, make sure no one crosses over,” Dean tried because maybe giving him a job would keep him off his back for a moment.</p><p>“Okay.” The nephilim nodded hesitantly and took a quick look back at the rift. It was relatively well hidden behind some trees and the light it exuded was too weak to be seen while the light from the weird camp site was basically taking over the whole clearing.</p><p>With one quick nod in Jack’s general direction Dean ducked down a little lower and started to crawl along the underbrush, away from the kid and towards the edge of the tree line. It felt like it took him forever to get there. Meanwhile, the activity on the other side was slowly dying down. He could hear cars starting up and driving away, low voices murmuring tired goodbyes to each other, and the constant hum of electricity being shut off when the lights were suddenly killed. Swearing under his breath he stopped in his tracks because his eyes needed to adjust to the sudden darkness. It wasn’t an absolute darkness by any means, he quickly discovered. A few yards away there were some bigger vehicles and a structure that appeared to be a huge tent, apparently the center of whatever operation was going on here. There was a softer light emanating from its windows.</p><p>It was the exact moment when Dean decided to keep moving, that a dark figure left the tent and walked into the general direction of Jack. The person had a slight drag to his steps and Dean had no idea why on earth aynone would be going that way. Quickly he turned around and, still ducking behind the bushes, looked back the way he had come.</p><p>He couldn’t see Jack from here and was now silently cursing himself for having left the kid behind. There was no way he could get back to him fast enough without flat out running, but he couldn’t take the chance of being discovered, either. Gritting his teeth, he ducked back down and started to army crawl as quickly as humanly possible.</p><p>“Alex?” Dean heard the voice before he could see its owner, but it was weirdly familiar and sent an ominous shiver down his spine. “What the hell are you doing here?”</p><p>Just as he made his way around the last bush that separated him from Jack, he stopped dead in his tracks, still bent low to the ground. There was a man standing on the other side of the trees, looking directly at Jack, who was, despite having been discovered, still trying to hide.</p><p>“Cas?” Jack finally asked in a small voice and Dean’s heart made an honourable attempt at jumping into his mouth.</p><p>“Seriously, you weren’t even supposed to be on set today. What’s going on?” The man sounded tired and although Dean still couldn’t quite see his face, the eye roll was obvious in his voice. “Is this some sort of prank? Did they finally break you and turn you against me?”</p><p>“No, I…” Jack scrunched his brows together in confusion. “What do you mean, Cas?”</p><p>There was no way around it now, Dean had to join the scene. He felt a terrible realization dawning in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite place it yet. So he stepped out of the shadows and just close enough to finally see what exactly was going on here.</p><p>“You too!?” The man exclaimed, almost as in shock at the appearance of another person.</p><p>Dean couldn’t even blame Jack, this man did for all intents and purposes, appear to be Cas. For a split second Dean thought it was him, too. But he knew better. Dean <em>knew</em> Cas. This wasn’t him. Sure, he looked like him. Same sharp features, same pink, slightly chapped lips, same deep, blue eyes. But the way the other man held himself, almost relaxed despite his own confusion at the situation he had found himself in. How he somehow didn’t quite fill out the battered trench coat he usually wore like a second skin. And the slightly higher, less gravelly pitch of his voice. Those weren’t Cas.</p><p>“Jensen?” The man addressed him again and suddenly the memory hit him with the force of a freight train. That actor guy they’d met <em>years </em>ago on the infamous first trip to the fucked up tv show universe Balthazar had sent them on. Misha, was it? This had to be <em>him</em>. “Seriously Jensen, I’m not in the mood.”</p><p>“Son of a bitch… Not this crap again,” Dean finally sighed with a frustrated eye roll, deciding there and then that he wasn't going to play along with the actor charade again, and turned to Jack. “That’s not Cas.”</p><p>“Oh,” Jack breathed in mild surprise. “I kind of knew that but I wasn’t sure. The spell… it wanted me to go to this man.” Without warning he made a grab for Dean’s shoulder again. “Ah… I see. He’s this universe’s version of Cas. Maybe the spell got confused because you weren’t around to confirm.”</p><p>“Guys? This isn’t funny and I’m tired. Just tell me what’s going on,” the man interjected, quickly losing his patience.</p><p>“Look,” Dean turned back to him, “we’re not here for you. So, if you could quickly answer some questions we’ll be out of your hair.”</p><p>“What kind of prank is this? Seems way too elaborate for either you or Jared,” he sighed, exasperatedly rubbing at his face.</p><p>“Listen. Misha, right? This isn’t Alex,” he pointed at Jack who had finally gotten up to stand beside him, “and I’m <em>definitely</em> not Jensen. I’ve also never met any Jared.” Seriously, what was up with the names around here? “You’re probably not gonna believe anything I say and, honestly, I don’t care, so I’m not even gonna try to explain. We just need some information and then we’re off.”</p><p>The man’s face was so full of doubt that Dean almost pitied him. Then he did the slightest head tilt and it reminded Dean so much of Cas, that he forgot to breathe for a second.</p><p>“Humor me,” he added with a lump in his throat.</p><p>“Well…” the man – Misha – started and ruffled his hair in an unsure gesture. “What do you want to know?”</p><p>“Where are we and why are you here?” Better start off simple.</p><p>“Just outside of Vancouver,” Misha replied and knitted his brows. “On location to shoot an episode for season 13.”</p><p>“Right, Vancouver… Did you maybe happen to run into someone who looks exactly like you today?” Dean went on and he was well aware of how insane he must sound to someone who already thought he was getting pranked.</p><p>“No…” Misha’s eyes widened with a sudden spark of curiosity. “But I did get an interesting tweet by someone who did. Run into someone who looked like me, I mean. They dm’d me a picture and I was shocked at how accurate that cosplay was.”</p><p>“What? What do you mean?” Dean took a step towards the man and gripped him by the lapel of his coat without even realizing what he was doing. “I need to see that picture. Now!”</p><p>“Shit, Jensen! Calm down. I don’t know how you managed to pull off a prank like this but I don’t really care for it,” Misha huffed and brushed off Dean’s hand in annoyance. “Getting the fans involved, this is a new low.”</p><p>“I’m not. Jensen. My name is Dean Winchester, this is Jack and we really need to find Cas. Sam and Rowena are waiting on the other side of that rift.” He pointed behind them to the only actual proof they had.</p><p>“Rift? What the fuck are you talking about?” But the actor’s doubts seemed to crumble as he looked over Dean’s shoulder to where he was pointing. His eyes widened again as they found the glowing tear in the fabric of his universe, this time in utter horror. He opened his mouth again but seemed speechless.</p><p>“Now, can we please see that picture you were talking about?” Dean asked, forcing himself to calm down.</p><p>Misha nodded silently and pulled his phone from his pocket. With a few swipes he had opened some messenger app, scrolled through his messages and found the picture. Then he handed the phone to Dean, still lost for words.</p><p>The older Winchester didn’t quite grasp what he was seeing at first. <em>This</em> was Cas, he was sure of it. Stoic and a bit uncomfortable looking, wedged between two grinning twenty-something’s. The message had been sent only two hours ago.</p><p>“Who are these people?” Dean asked when he handed the phone back.</p><p>“Fans,” Misha shrugged, finally having found his voice again. “And you mean to tell me…” he looked back over at the rift again, “that you are the <em>actual </em>Dean Winchester? And you lost Castiel?”</p><p>“I didn’t <em>lose</em> him,” Dean growled almost dangerously. “Jack lost control and <em>pushed</em> him into this mess of a universe.”</p><p>Jack shrank down visibly at the obvious accusation and took a small step away from Dean.</p><p>“Oh.” Misha looked at the boy in understanding. “I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose.”</p><p>“Still, here we are,” Dean stated and threw his hands up in an all-encompassing gesture. Apparently, every version of Cas seemed to have a soft spot for the kid. Well, this was kind of annoying. “So, you gonna help us or not?”</p><p>“Didn’t you say something about a spell? What do you need me for?” the actor shot back immediately.</p><p>“Transportation and catering, mostly,” the hunter replied with a smug smile. “Also, if you know who and where these people are that Cas is with, we might get done with this rescue mission a lot quicker.”</p><p>“Well,” the actor crossed his arms over his chest and pursed his lips in consideration. “I’d never turn down a soul in need. And I guess I could make sure that you stop bullying the poor kid.” He actually had the audacity to pinch Dean’s cheek to underline his words. It didn’t escape Dean how Jack was trying to suppress a giggle at that. “But I’d have to be back on set the morning on the day after tomorrow.”</p><p>“Are you really sure they’d miss you?” Dean asked sourly as he rubbed at his reddened cheek.</p><p>“Oh yes, especially Jensen would be inconsolable if I didn’t show up,” Misha nodded vigorously. “He loves me very much, you know?”</p><p>Dean did his most impressive eye roll at that. “Maybe you’ll make it back to set. Maybe not. There’s no way of really knowing, right?”</p><p>Misha swallowed heavily, suddenly not feeling so cheeky anymore. Jack put a reassuring hand to his upper arm and gave him a warm smile. “I can keep an eye on him for you, too.”</p><p>“Can you now?” Dean huffed, almost amused, as he turned away from them. Only then did he realize that the bustle from what he now knew was the set of a television show had almost completely died down. “So, no one’s gonna drive you home, big shot?”</p><p>“I’m driving myself, thank you very much,” Misha replied sharply.</p><p>“Perfect.” Dean gave him a blindingly bright grin. “Let’s go then. We haven’t got all night.”</p><p>Misha swallowed again, Jack’s hand falling away from his arm as he turned to follow Dean. This was going to be <em>interesting</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Man, I am so sorry for how long this one took. The "finale" kinda did a number on me and I really didn't feel like writing for quite some time. Somehow I finally managed to get this done, though, because it's all about writing our own stories, right? If you're still reading, I'd love to know what you think!</p><p>Massive thanks to my very patient and very awesome beta <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffinlover246/pseuds/muffinlover246">Muffinlover246</a>!</p><p>Oh and merry belated Christmas! I hope you're all staying safe.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Theo, you can’t tell me that you seriously believe this lunatic. I mean, <em>come on</em>! An angel from an alternate dimension where your favorite show is real?” Jean whispered frantically. “Mel, I get, she’s just wired that way. But you?”</p><p>She had dragged him to the kitchen as soon as she’d seen an opening. Mel had shown the supposed angel to the bathroom. They’d all insisted he take a shower because, well, he did look worn from his journey. Now she was distracted with picking out some clean clothes for him to wear for the time being.</p><p>“I thought you’d come around, too?” Theo gave Jean an unsure look.</p><p>“For a second there I… He sounded sincere, okay? Maybe he believes all that crap himself. Which would make him even more of a lunatic,” she tried to reason.</p><p>“Look, I know it sounds crazy,” he sighed quietly. “But… I don’t know, man… I’d just like to think that there are things we just can’t explain. Things that shouldn’t be possible from a scientific point of view. And you know me, I’m a science guy. But just because we don’t understand <em>yet</em>, doesn’t mean we can just deny what’s happening here.”</p><p>“Okay, but,” she started, the fight between disbelief and resignation painfully visible in her expression, “even if we say everything he told us is true, what do you wanna do about it?”</p><p>“Well, we’re kinda responsible for what happened to him because we summoned him here. So, I feel like we owe it to him to at least <em>try</em> to get him home.” Theo bit his lower lip in thought, his eyes trained on Jean’s scared face. “When I say <em>we</em>, I mean Mel and me. You could spend the night at your parents’ place, and we’d have him out of here by tomorrow.”</p><p>“No,” she replied immediately, obviously shocked by her own firmness. “I will not leave you two alone with him. I’m a part of this now, like it or not. Maybe having at least<em> one</em> sane person around isn’t the worst idea, either.”</p><p>“Oh,” Theo breathed in surprise. He’d expected a lot, but not <em>this</em>. He found that he liked this new side of Jean. “Okay, then.”</p><p>“What’re you guys talking about?” Mel had come back to the kitchen, her arms full of shirts and pants for their “guest” to try on. Fortunately, Theo and Castiel were roughly the same height, although the younger man was a bit leaner, less muscular. They’d just have to go by trial and error.</p><p>“Just brainstorming on how to get this angel man back to his own reality,” Jean shrugged, almost pulling off nonchalant. “I guess this is going to be tricky.”</p><p>“Awesome!” Mel grinned brightly. “You know, I didn’t think you’d be up for this insanity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m seriously happy you’re joining the mission. But I would’ve totally understood, if you rather didn’t wanna have anything to do with this.”</p><p>“Who else is going to look out for you two nut jobs?” Jean shrugged again, this time with a small smile.</p><p>“Aww, you love us!” Mel crooned teasingly and Jean gave her an eye roll.</p><p>“Hello?” A deep voice suddenly interrupted them. “Did you find clothes for me?”</p><p>“Oh! Yes! I’ll put them by the bathroom door. You can just choose whatever fits you the best.” Quickly she hurried into the hallway to bring Castiel her selection from Theo’s wardrobe. “This is gonna be fun,” she added as an aside and winked at her friends.</p><p>“Mel, you better not have given him any of my fan shirts.” Theo gave her a pointed look. “Maybe he can’t smite you right now, but I don’t think he’d take kindly to wearing my Demon Dean or King of Hell shirts.”</p><p>“Of course I didn’t give him <em>those</em>, what kind of person do you take me for?” Mel said in mock indignation. “But if his reality is anything like the show, I know <em>someone </em>who’d appreciate some of my choices. And anyway, I did pick some simple, nondescript shirts, too.”</p><p>“So, you’re basically playing dress-up with an angel? To fulfill your dirty fanfiction fantasies?” Jean laughed, then turned to Theo. “I think we’re allowed to have some fun with this.”</p><p>“Well, I won’t stop you,” he conceded with a frown, but then muttered, “But don’t mess with the nerd angel, just saying.”</p><p>The quote completely went over Jean’s head, but Mel laughed lightheartedly, then turned back to Jean and added, “It’s not fanfiction if it’s true.”</p><p>“You’re not going to start meddling, are you?” Theo asked warningly.</p><p>But before she could answer, the bathroom door opened and Castiel stepped from the hallway back into the living room. Three curious sets of eyes immediately landed on him. Theo’s eyebrows quickly rose in disbelief and vanished under his messy fringe. Jean just looked confused, but Mel’s mouth split into a wide, approving grin. The angel had chosen a pair of tight fitted, black jeans and a grey shirt that prominently featured a picture of the Impala and the word “Baby” underneath it.</p><p>“Great choice,” Mel said and gave him a thumbs-up. “If you need anything to wear over that, Theo has quite an impressive collection of flannels.”</p><p>“These trousers feel a little constricting,” the angel said doubtfully as he looked down his legs. “But I would like something to put over this shirt, thank you.”</p><p>“Nah, those jeans look great on you. You’ll get used to them,” Jean said while looking him up and down, unabashedly appreciative. For a second there she almost seemed to forget all about her reservations towards him. Meanwhile, Mel had run off again, raiding Theo’s closet once more.</p><p>Theo elbowed Jean in the side and hissed, “Don’t flirt with the angel.” To his relief Castiel hadn’t caught their exchange, though, as he had found the mirror by the front door and was now eyeing himself skeptically.</p><p>Mel came back with a dark blue, plaid flannel and rushed into the hallway to hand it over to the angel. “I think this would go great with your new outfit,” she smiled innocently.</p><p>“Yes, thank you. I like it,” he finally admitted. “But I still prefer my own trousers. These are… very tight.”</p><p>“Well, I could wash your clothes if you want,” she shrugged, almost disappointed.</p><p>“No, it’s fine. We don’t need to waste any more time on clothes,” Castiel finally decided and turned back to the living room, Mel following suit.</p><p>“You dressed him for a date, didn’t you?” Theo hissed accusingly as she walked past him to get more beer from the fridge while Castiel sat down on the sofa.</p><p>“I did no such thing,” she replied under her breath and stuck her tongue out at him.</p><p>He narrowed his eyes, still suspicious of his best friend. “I’ll keep an eye on you, meddler.”</p><p>“Are you done with whatever lovers’ quarrel you’re having over there?” Jean called from the armchair she’d made herself comfortable in.</p><p>Mel just rolled her eyes and together they joined their roommate and the angel in the living room. She put down four bottles of beer on the table and then sat down next to Castiel while Theo lounged down on a pillow on the other side of the coffee table.</p><p>“Did you achieve any results with the photograph we took earlier?” The angel took one of the bottles and opened it hesitantly, as he looked at the young woman next to him.</p><p>“Not yet… Misha is a very famous actor who probably gets thousands of messages every day. It was a long shot,” she admitted with a sigh. “Anyway, I’m not sure how he could’ve helped us. If he believed any of it, that is.”</p><p>“Maybe we could ask Tumblr for help,” Theo suggested, nursing his beer thoughtfully.</p><p>“Who is Tumblr?” Castiel asked in confusion.</p><p>“It’s a very messy place on the internet where fans come to gather and that’s all you need to know,” Mel quickly explained and gave Theo a disapproving look. “Don’t corrupt the angel.”</p><p>“Hey, <em>you’re</em> the one who gave him the Impala shirt.” He just shrugged and leaned back on his hand.</p><p>“Is something wrong with this shirt?” Castiel asked and knitted his brows together, fortunately oblivious to the subtext of the conversation going on around him.</p><p>“No, don’t worry, it’s a great shirt.” Mel patted him on the arm reassuringly. “Maybe we should get another one so you can give it to Dean. I bet he’d love that.”</p><p>“You could also get one for the one with the great hair. Wait, isn’t he called Dean, too?” Jean asked with an amused grin.</p><p>“No, his name’s Sam. He was Dean on Gilmore Girls,” Mel corrected and had to suppress a laugh at Castiel’s utterly lost expression.</p><p>“Oh, right,” Jean nodded and went on, sniggering. “You could get him one that says, ‘My friend went to another dimension and all he got me is this dumb shirt’.”</p><p>“Damn, you make jokes now?” Theo laughed and took another sip from his bottle which got him an offended glare from her. “You’re full of surprises.”</p><p>“This conversation seems ineffective to me,” Castiel deadpanned and the other three gave him apologetic smiles.</p><p>“Sorry, we’re just a little excited you’re here,” Mel admitted. “All of this must be very weird for you. I mean, you’re a real person but we know you as a character from our favorite tv show. And we talk about you and your friends like we know you, like, personally.”</p><p>“You don’t need to be sorry. I am aware that this is an extraordinary situation for all of us. Frankly, I am surprised by your willingness to accept the truth of it,” the angel said, now a little softer, and finally took a swig of beer. “I’m beginning to think it’s a good thing that I have ended up here. You seem to have detailed knowledge of the supernatural and are probably most qualified to help me.”</p><p>“I’ll drink to that,” Theo announced and raised his bottle. “Being an obsessive fan finally pays off.”</p><p>Three more beers were raised, and the sound of clinking glass filled the room. It was followed by a contemplative silence while they drank. Castiel’s eyes swept the room and got stuck on the far wall which was covered in photographs. When Mel followed his gaze, she immediately blushed. There was a whole section dedicated to photo ops she and Theo had gotten at conventions. When he zoned in on a very certain photograph, she got nervous and, admittedly, a little excited. It was the one she had taken with Jensen and Misha, her personal favorite. She was leaning on Jensen’s arm, looking up at him, while he and Misha were holding hands and raising their eyebrows at her. All three of them were smiling. Castiel tilted his head and squinted at the image. It became very obvious to Mel that he didn’t even realize he was being watched.</p><p>When she looked away again, she met Theo’s gaze and he finally cleared his throat, addressing the angel. “You okay, man?”</p><p>“Yes,” he said as he snapped out of his thoughts. “Are they,” – was <em>the angel</em> actually blushing as he nodded at the photo? – “in a relationship?”</p><p>“Erm…” Theo frantically looked at Mel for help.</p><p>“We don’t know, to be honest. Sometimes it seems like it,” she shrugged uncomfortably. “But it’s mostly rumors and probably wishful thinking on our part. Would be great, though, wouldn’t it? They do look amazing together.”</p><p>“They look happy,” the angel finally concluded and looked back at his beer, peeling at the label.</p><p>Mel furrowed her brows in alarm and Theo returned the gesture in earnest. Silence threatened to settle again, but this time it was so awkward that it made her skin crawl.</p><p>“Well, call me a romantic, but I think the right person is out there somewhere. For all of us. Sometimes you don’t even have to look far,” Jean stated, single handedly defusing the tension. She even dared to give Mel and Theo a suggestive wink. Well, there were things she just didn’t know about them. They both stared her down, disapprovingly. She just raised an eyebrow and shrugged in a suit-yourself gesture.</p><p>To everyone’s relief, Mel’s phone suddenly vibrated on the table and distracted them from the current conversation.</p><p>“Shit, guys!” she exclaimed excitedly as she quickly opened the new message. “It’s Misha! He actually replied to my dm!”</p><p>“What’s he saying?” Theo asked, equally thrilled.</p><p>Mel’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she read the message over three times. Then she looked up at the others, her gaze finally settling on Castiel. “I think he’s fucking with us. He says he needs our address because he’s in the car with Dean and Jack, and they want to pick up Cas.”</p><p>“What?” Jean exclaimed. “Is this guy for real?”</p><p>“Seems fishy to me,” Theo said and sat up straight. “Do not give him our address. What if his account got hacked? Why on earth should he be with Dean and Jack?”</p><p>Mel was still intently looking at Castiel. Their next move was kinda his choice. “What do you think?”</p><p>“I think,” he finally breathed after a prolonged and very pensive silence, “we need to be careful. Is there any way we could confirm that he is telling the truth?”</p><p>“Ask him for a phone number!” Jean offered, obviously with the need to be helpful. “Talking to your friends would confirm it all, right?”</p><p>“Yes, that would settle any doubts,” Castiel nodded affirmatively.</p><p>“But what if it is Misha but he just puts Jensen on the phone? I mean, he <em>is </em>Dean, for all intents and purposes,” Theo argued, his face scrunched up in worry.</p><p>“Jesus, Theo! Do you even hear yourself?” Mel almost laughed. “That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever said. Why should he put Jensen on the phone? To prank <em>us</em>? You really think Misha, Jensen and Alex would drive down here just to mess with some random fans? Seems like a massive waste of time and resources.”</p><p>“So <em>you</em> think it’s more likely that he’s actually in a car with Dean and Jack? That the rift opened wherever he was at the time and they met by accident?” he challenged, quite miffed to be called out like that.</p><p>Mel waved her hands exaggeratedly at the angel beside her. “Yeah, I think the odds are in our favor.”</p><p>“Just ask for the number,” Cas interrupted the argument, obviously fed up with their back and forth. “I am certain that I can tell Dean apart from your actor.”</p><p>“Okay,” Theo conceded, hands raised in defeat. “But please, whatever the outcome of that phone call might be, let’s not give anyone this address. We could still meet them somewhere else. Like, neutral ground.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’d actually be more comfortable with that, too,” Jean chimed in and patted Theo’s shoulder in a show of support.</p><p>“Fine,” Mel replied, seemingly pacified. “But you know what that means.” Her face lit up in renewed excitement.</p><p>“Road trip,” Theo and Jean groaned in unison.</p><p>“Road trip!” Mel exclaimed, much more excited than her two friends.</p><p>“I don’t understand. What is special about road trips?” Castiel asked, shaking his head incredulously.</p><p>“Well, nothing. But we don’t get out that much,” Mel laughed and started to type out their reply to who was hopefully Misha Collins.</p><p> </p><p>* * *</p><p> </p><p>They’d been driving in silence for the better part of half an hour and Dean was still fuming from the short, but intense, argument they’d had before finally taking off. While Misha was slowly relaxing his iron grip on the steering wheel, a quick glance into the rear view mirror showed him that Jack was smiling unassumingly. What a precious kid. He loved Alex almost like a son, but he was an adult. This was, for all intents and purposes, just a child in a weirdly grown up body.</p><p>Misha finally sighed without taking his eyes off the road as his attention returned to the angry man beside him. “I’m sorry if my car’s offending you.”</p><p>Dean just huffed at the sarcasm. “I just don’t get why we couldn’t take the Impala. I mean, it was right <em>there</em>.”</p><p>“Yeah, but it’s a prop. I can’t just steal props from set. Could’ve lost my job over that. They would’ve informed the police and put out an APB on the car which isn’t exactly a low-profile vehicle. Plus, they would’ve known it was me because my car would still be on the property.” Misha rambled on until Dean put his hands up in defeat.</p><p>“I get it,” he sighed, still eyeing the car in disapproval. “Just… tell me why your fans are having us jumping through hoops again?”</p><p>The actor gave a one-sided shrug. “I guess they’re protective of Cas. They think we might be messing with them. And I get it, weird circumstances and precious cargo.”</p><p>And weird they were indeed. As per request Misha had given them his phone number, albeit reluctantly. In return they’d told them to drive to Seattle. The unlikely trio was now expected to send a picture with a timestamp of something that proved they’d arrived there. Only then would they call Misha’s phone. He was secretly proud of how suspicious these particular fans were, even if it meant that Dean was growing evermore frustrated.</p><p>“Protective my ass,” Dean grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s more than capable of looking out for himself. He’s a freaking <em>angel</em>.”</p><p>“Why are you so antsy, then?” Misha asked with a small smirk.</p><p>“Fans are weird. Just the thought of them gives me the creeps,” he just said and looked out the window.</p><p>“You thinking about Becky? Well, they’re not all like her. And I feel like she’s been greatly misunderstood, anyway.” The actor quickly glanced at his phone, but no new messages so far.</p><p>“Misunderstood? Really? She drugged Sam and forced him to marry her,” the hunter snapped and finally looked back at Misha, clearly agitated.</p><p>“I don’t mean she didn’t make her fair share of mistakes. But I think she was lonely and desperate. She felt connected to you guys because of the books. Of course, she didn’t <em>know</em> you. She knew your characters and that’s no excuse for what she did. But it happens to us, too. You know, people thinking they know us personally because of our work and public appearances. Sometimes it’s completely overwhelming and scares the shit out of me. I’ve learned to lean into it, though. Most of the fans are great, loving, supportive, smart, and interesting people. It’s a unique relationship and there’s a lot to gain from it,” the actor rambled in defense of a fandom he’d grown to love a lot. “In a way, they’re family.”</p><p>“Shit, pal,” Dean almost laughed. “You love them, got it. And they also pay your bills, which must be a nice side effect.”</p><p>The actor pursed his lips at that, a little offended. “I’m not in it for the money. I’d still do it, even if I only got paid minimum wage. Although, I do admit that it’s a perk to make money with what I love doing.”</p><p>“Erm…” Jack cleared his throat, obviously trying to dissolve the tension between the other two. “Sam is married?”</p><p>Dean barked out an honest laugh at that. “Not anymore. Becky drugged him with a love potion, but we managed to get him out of that <em>situation</em>.”</p><p>“That’s too bad,” the boy mused, more to himself than the others. “I think he would be very good at being married.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Dean grinned and turned around in his seat to properly look at the nephilim. “And what do <em>you</em> know about marriage?”</p><p>“Well, he loves his family a lot and cares for everyone, even me,” they boy shrugged, and in a sudden rush of discomfort averted his eyes. “He’s a good brother and a good dad. Why shouldn’t he be a good husband, too?”</p><p>“A good dad?” The hunter’s eyebrows rose up to his hairline.</p><p>“Yes,” he nodded, still pointedly avoiding Dean’s gaze. “I don’t really know my real father, and from everything you’ve told me, I don’t think I’d like him very much.”</p><p>“So, you chose Sam as your dad?” There was a weird, emotional edge to the hunter’s voice, but Jack didn’t seem to notice. Misha did. He didn’t dare to interrupt their weirdly deep family conversation, though.</p><p>“Sam, yes. And Cas, of course. He’s been there even before I was born,” Jack went on, then chanced a quick look at Dean from the corner of his eyes. “And you.”</p><p>“<em>Me</em>?” Dean sank back into his seat, completely baffled by Jack’s statement.</p><p>“I know you don’t trust me very much and I know that you sometimes think I might be just another monster,” the nephilim said hesitantly, yet very sure of his words. “I understand. But you have given me a home, and I want to try my best to be a part of your family.”</p><p>“Oh,” Dean breathed, utterly out of his depth with the blunt emotionality Jack was suddenly offering.</p><p>“Wow,” Misha murmured, torn between the anxious need to lighten the mood and the certainty that this conversation wasn’t meant for his ears. “Three dads, that’s impressive.”</p><p>“I know,” Jack replied, looking over at Misha with a proud smile.</p><p>Dean turned back to look out at the dark road. He swallowed heavily and didn’t really know what to do or say for a few minutes while Misha managed to distract Jack with a discussion on some cartoon on Netflix about an adventurous girl. Dean didn’t pay attention but was grateful the actor had come to his rescue. His head had been a mess ever since he had seen Cas fall into the rift.</p><p>Man, Jack really <em>knew</em> how he felt about him. He knew Dean didn’t trust him. Still he wanted to be part of whatever dysfunctional family they had become over the years. The weird thing to him was that it didn’t feel weird at all. Of course, Sam was his brother. Cas was… his best friend, he guessed? For a long time, he’d considered him a brother and not only in arms. But… somehow, it’d always been different than with Sam. He’d called him a brother, but it’d never sat quite right with him. Which was only natural, he’d told himself. Sam was his actual, having-grown-up-together-and-having-the-same-parents brother, family by blood. Cas was… different. Always had been. Well, maybe now wasn’t the time to analyze the way he felt about the angel or the space he’d made for himself in Dean’s life. Or the kid who’d decided to be his son now. His <em>son</em>, for fuck’s sake. He quickly shoved all those thoughts back into a dark, mostly ignored corner of his mind. With just a bit of luck, he wouldn’t have to dig that shit up again until much later. Hopefully, never.</p><p>In hope of distraction he eventually looked over at the actor, trying to get back into the conversation he was having with the kid. Instead of getting his head back into the moment, though, he started to scan the man’s face for all the little differences that set him apart from Cas. Very unlike Cas, Misha almost immediately reacted to the other man’s scrutiny.</p><p>“Like what you see?” he teased easily and winked at Dean.</p><p>Well shit, that actually made him blush a little. Whether it was the comment or the fact that he’d been caught staring, he wasn’t sure.</p><p>“You’re wearing my best friend’s face,” he shot back with an eye roll.</p><p>“So… you <em>don’t</em> like what you see?” The actor raised his brows in question, but Dean just ignored him. “Well, if your Cas is anything like the one I know – and I know him pretty well because I kinda am him – he does like what he sees.”</p><p>“What?” Dean was starting to get tired and short-fused. He just wanted to rest his eyes for a bit, but the man beside him gave off an energy of relentlessness.</p><p>“I’m just saying, he enjoys your face. And so do I. It’s also Jensen’s face, after all,” Misha shrugged nonchalantly and returned his attention to the road. Just in time for Dean’s curiosity to get the better of him again. Great.</p><p>“So, Jensen is this world’s Dean like you are its Cas?” Jack asked, leaning forward in his seat.</p><p>“Yes, basically,” Misha nodded with a mirthful grin.</p><p>“Is he your boyfriend?” the boy went on, as blunt as ever.</p><p>Dean gripped both his thighs very hard at the dangerous turn the conversation was taking. They both seemed to be out to make him as uncomfortable as possible. He couldn’t really blame the kid, he looked just too damn innocent to know what he was doing. But Misha’s intentions were a whole different story. The hunter prided himself with being pretty good at reading people. It came with the job. This guy was an actor, though. His profession literally <em>was</em> lying, and his face remained unreadable to him.</p><p>“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Misha admitted. “But at the same time, it also isn’t. I could tell you, I guess. You’ll soon be returning to your own universe and you knowing wouldn’t change anything here…”</p><p>“Is it a secret?” the nephilim enquired curiously. “We won’t tell anyone, right Dean?”</p><p>“Mhm,” Dean just mumbled, still dumb struck with embarrassment.</p><p>“You see, Jack, it kinda <em>is</em> a secret,” the actor mused with a side glance at the hunter. “But I don’t think your dad is ready to hear it. Maybe later.”</p><p>“Okay.” Jack leaned back again, and he turned to look out of the window with a suppressed yawn.</p><p>“We’re still about one and a half hours from Seattle. Maybe you should close your eyes and rest,” Misha suggested with a look at the boy.</p><p>“I’m not tired,” Jack replied with an almost defiant pout.</p><p>“Tell you what, if you can count a hundred streetlights without falling asleep, I’ll tell you the secret,” he offered with a soft smile. Dean didn’t miss it and it did a real number on the already kinda mushy state of his insides.</p><p>“Okay,” the boy said, resting his head against the window and apparently starting to count the streetlights. It took less than five minutes until they heard a soft snoring from the backseat.</p><p>“Color me impressed,” Dean said in a low voice and with a nod of approval.</p><p>“I have two kids.” Misha just shrugged by way of explanation. “I know my way around a petulant child.”</p><p>“You have… But I thought you were involved with that Jensen guy.” The frown on Dean’s face almost made him laugh.</p><p>“I did mention that it was kinda complicated? And anyway, two men <em>can</em> have kids together. You know that, right?” Ah, with the teasing again.</p><p>“Of course I know that,” the hunter huffed in annoyance. “But you two <em>don’t</em>, right?”</p><p>“Well, no,” Misha sighed, but not unhappily. “So, you <em>do</em> want to know?”</p><p>“Not particularly, no,” he grinned crookedly. Somehow, he could feel that the actor <em>wanted</em> to tell him. Maybe he just needed to tell <em>someone</em>. But Dean was tired and although he wasn’t proud of it, he sort of enjoyed refusing the other man, especially after all the teasing. “Wouldn’t be fair to Jack, either. You got him all curious about your love life. I need some minutes of shuteye, anyway. You still okay to drive?”</p><p>“I am,” Misha nodded, seeming a little disappointed, but understanding, nevertheless. “I’ll wake you when we’re in Seattle.”</p><p>“Okay,” Dean yawned and closed his eyes.</p><p>He knew he wouldn’t be able to get any actual sleep. But it was a good enough excuse to get the other man’s attention away from him for the time being. Truth was, he started to like the man despite his intrusiveness, and not only because of his very familiar face. He was witty and funny and yeah… kinda hot. Even if it felt wrong to admit, even to himself. <em>Especially</em> because of that familiar face. Did he want to shine a light on that very dark, unsafe corner of his mind? Still, not the right time. Probably never the right time.</p><p>With a deep breath he tried to clear his head and get his priorities straight. Get Cas back. Return to Sam. Have a word with Jack about that whole family business. And maybe, somewhere in between, find out why Misha had been so damn willing to believe their story right off the bat.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>First of all, happy new year (hopefully)! Hope you're all well and safe. </p><p>So, here we go. I really hope I can get into a more frequent updating schedule. Not very good at those...</p><p>As always, thanks to my awesome and supportive beta <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffinlover246/pseuds/muffinlover246">Muffinlover246</a>!</p><p>Let me know what you think! ;D</p>
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